BUCK OWENS: 1929-2006 / Country fans line up to recall a generous soul

Carl Hall, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 2, 2006

Photo: FELIX ADAMO

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

** FILE ** Country music legend Buck Owens performs in Bakersfield, Calif., Wednesday, June 29, 2005, during a taping for Country Music Television. Owens, the flashy "rhinestone cowboy" who shaped the sound of country music and helped introduce the genre to mainstream America on the long-running TV show "Hee Haw," has died. He was 76. Owens died early Saturday, March 25, 2006 at his home, said a family spokesperson. The cause of death was not immediately known. (AP Photo/Bakersfield Californian, Felix Adamo) less

** FILE ** Country music legend Buck Owens performs in Bakersfield, Calif., Wednesday, June 29, 2005, during a taping for Country Music Television. Owens, the flashy "rhinestone cowboy" who shaped the sound of ... more

Photo: FELIX ADAMO

BUCK OWENS: 1929-2006 / Country fans line up to recall a generous soul

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

2006-04-02 04:00:00 PDT Bakersfield -- Greg Mackedanz, a long-haul trucker from Blaine, Minn., was headed down Highway 99 Saturday afternoon, listening to country music on the radio station.

He was due in Riverside to pick up a load of new cars bound for Omaha. But when the announcer said that memorial services were going on this weekend for Buck Owens, Mackedanz didn't hesitate.

He turned that rig around and headed straight for Buck Owens' Crystal Palace on Buck Owens Boulevard.

Nightclub owner Owens, a country legend, was a TV star and steady hit producer in the 1960s, and primary architect of the raw, revolutionary "Bakersfield sound." He died on March 25, a few hours after returning home after one last Friday night performance.

On Saturday, a week later, nearly 6,000 friends and fans streamed by his open casket, set among flowers on a darkened Crystal Palace dance floor. Spotlights illuminated three guitars on stage, where Owens always stood with his bandmates, the Buckaroos, during weekend shows.

When Mackedanz, 54, filed past on Saturday, "Crying Time," one of Owen's big crossover hits, was playing softly on the loudspeakers.

Much of Bakersfield seemed to stop in its tracks when Owens died. The nightclub, cultural center of the spread-out town, has been closed and won't open again until a free Clint Black gig on Tuesday.

Fans have been coming around from throughout the West, and even beyond, to pay tribute to a figure so beloved that many likened him to a countrified Elvis, and said his Crystal Palace was as holy as Graceland.

Cars and pickups snaked around the club all day, under the big "Bakersfield" sign Owens had erected in tribute to his adopted hometown, and inched into the parking lot, where a dozen members of the security staff struggled to find room for them. Police had to close the exit on Highway 99 to keep traffic from backing up onto the freeway. Local TV stations camped out in front.

Just about everyone came decked out in their Saturday-night best, even if it was only 1 p.m., and took pictures of each other in front of the flowers piling up by the roadside.

"He was an icon, a honky-tonk icon," said Russ Varnell, leader of Russ Varnell and his Too Country Band, who had just flown in from North Carolina. "I'm a nobody, and he was a millionaire, and yet every time I would come here he'd always bring me up to sing. He was a class act."

Owens had one hit after another in the 1960s with his distinctive stripped-down sound, and made some classic live recordings, too. The Beatles and Ray Charles, among many others, covered his songs.

"He was the artist of the decade in the '60s," Varnell said. "He won every award there was but best female vocalist, and if he'd 'uv found a way, he'd 'uv won that, too."

Marie Disheroon said she met Owens in 1956, when he was playing tiny joints in Texas, and the crowd would be "six people, and three of us didn't pay to get in." She said it took her three days of bus travel to make her way to Bakersfield from Dallas, where she runs a mobile home park.

"Three days on a bus to see Buck -- I wouldn't do that for the pope," she said.

Although the Owens family declined to make any public announcements, some big names in the music business also are coming around to pay respects, reportedly including Dwight Yoakam, who recorded a hit version of "Streets of Bakersfield" with Owens.

A spokeswoman for the family said the funeral will include "musical tributes by some of Buck's friends in the music industry."

The service will be held today at 2 p.m. at the Valley Baptist Church, where Owens was a longtime member. His death was not a total shock to those who knew him well. He had been ill for some time. Veteran fans said Friday night's last show was more subdued than usual.

"When he walked up on stage, he had a look on his face I hadn't ever seen before, like he was very mad or in a lot of pain, and looking back I kind of think now it must have been he was in pain," Joe Stormont said.

Owens was a genius songwriter and gifted singer, but most of all he was a true performer who would never want to disappoint a fan.

Stormont said that when the spotlight hit Owens that last night, he dropped the grimace and put on his grin, like always. He did try to leave early that Friday, but then he bumped into some fans outside, who said they had just arrived after having driven all the way from Oregon for his show. So, Stormont said, Owens turned around and did a few more songs.

He was standoffish and dodgy with interviewers but he was uncommonly generous with people he barely knew, donating large sums to local hospitals and animal-welfare groups.

"He always recognized everyone as a friend," said Barbara Stephens, 75, a regular.

"He was still flirting, at age 76," said Sharron Carlson, who said she was first to be let in the door when the Crystal Palace opened in October 1996.

Owens dressed in jewel-studded Nudie suit grandeur and owned a Bentley and other fine cars, yet fans still got the impression he was one of them. He might have had a canary-yellow Hummer, but he would drive it himself to a lot of shows.

Longtime friend Bill Mustin, 73, leader of Bill Mustin and the Country Playboys, said Owens was different from the start, calling him "a visionary" for whom music was "a spiritual calling."

"It came from one end of this valley to the other," Mustin said. "Nobody this side of Hank Williams touched people the way this man did."

Although others have sometimes been credited with coming up with guitars-up-front Bakersfield sound before Owens showed up, Mustin gave the late legend all the credit Saturday.

"This is an oil town," Mustin said. "This is cattle. This is farming. This is a rough-and-tough place. It's not Montana, but the music here, to be successful, had to appeal to the people here."

More cars, more pickup trucks, were rolling in as he talked. In fact, as the day went on, the crowds seemed to get bigger. They were looking for something they couldn't find anywhere else, but on the streets of Bakersfield.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.